Short Stories, Life and Love

Created

It was finally here – the day that I would defy God. The day that I would create a living, breathing, thinking human being.

My hands shook as I prepared the ingredients I needed. The water had to be carefully overmeasured, as some would be lost in the boiling process. Carbon; nitrogen; calcium; phosphorous; various other elements measured out in minuscule volumes.

The water went straight into a large, black cauldron, set atop four Bunsen burners. Science only got me so far, and I had had to turn to long-unused magics to succeed. This magic, though, would be far more precise than the old ways of trial-and-error, and ‘close enough’s. It had to be.

Four Bunsen burners, that must be lit near-simultaneously. It was a tricky endeavour, but countless hours practicing meant even my shaky hands could do it. First hourglass set for three minutes precisely, enough time to boil for certain, before adding the carbon.

At three minutes, it was time for some Black magic. I quote the spell haltingly from the Black family grimoire as I add each piece.

Life begins in Water, most powerful of The Four
Add to this a darkness deep as coal.
Follow with some liquid luck
And a smile that will guarantee hearts stole.
Balance dark within with powerful light
Then you shall have a life made whole.
But forget not life’s end,
For where it began shall rest your soul.

With this last verse, I squeezed a single drop of water from an eye-dropper, carefully into the cauldron. The concoction disappeared as though sucked through a drain, with a large whoosh! I stepped back in horror at what I had created.

From the cauldron he rose, fully formed and with not a single defect in sight. He was me – and maybe I was him.